Publishing world

This past weekend, the New Yorker published a lengthy exposé detailing how Dan Mallory, the former William Morrow executive editor and pseudonymous author, as A.J. Finn, of the bestselling thriller The Woman in the Window, had lied to colleagues and superiors for years as he rose up the ranks in publishing. Read more

Mystery author Kellye Garrett found out that her publisher, Midnight Ink, an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide, would be closing to new author submissions next year on the same day the news was announced publicly in October, when she received an email from the publisher.

It would be easy to frame the history of Irish book publishing as a simple tale of David against Goliath, the plucky Irish upstart against the ‘overmighty neighbour'. Yet, as Tony Farmar shows in his new book on the subject, the actual story is far more complex.

Over the past quarter century, Seth Godin has taught and inspired millions of entrepreneurs, marketers, leaders, and fans from all walks of life, via his blog, online courses, lectures, and bestselling books. He is the inventor of countless ideas and phrases that have made their way into mainstream business language, from Purple Cow to Tribes. Read more

Walking the halls of the Frankfurt Book FairWorld's largest trade fair for books; held annually mid-October at Frankfurt Trade Fair, Germany; First three days exclusively for trade visitors; general public can attend last two. is always a mixed experience. The sheer size of the industry is daunting, as is the unbridled optimism of so many publishers that their stands will attract the business they need to survive. It's also a tad depressing to realize that most of the books on display will probably prove to be unprofitable. Read more

As the Frankfurter Buchmesse comes to a close today (October 14), organizers are reporting that the 70th iteration of the book fair, ranked as the world's largest trade show for the books industry, "ended with an increase of 0.8 percent in visitors at the weekend"-the public-facing part of the week-"and a slight decrease of 1.8 percent during the trade visitor days," which are Wednesday, Thursd Read more

It's a common question in our constantly evolving digital world: are publishers adapting quickly enough? Yet through a decade of rapid technological change, a global recession, and ever-shifting consumer expectations, the global book business has shown its resilience. And one needs look no further than the Frankfurt Book FairWorld's largest trade fair for books; held annually mid-October at Frankfurt Trade Fair, Germany; First three days exclusively for trade visitors; general public can attend last two. for an example of the industry's strength.

The rise of audiobooks, a small but rapidly growing piece of book publishing, is by now well documented, but rarely is it framed as a tech story. It's maybe a little counterintuitive to think of what we once called Books on Tape (so cumbersome they had to be abridged to remain affordable) as a format on the disruptive cutting edge. Read more

Linked items...

‘I never planned to be a writer. It is a very odd way to make a living. Just telling lies... I do have a visceral sense of breaking through the shell of something when I walk into my study in the morning. Now I just go and do it.

Recently I have found myself wondering about the prevalence of rough sex in new fiction written by women. It's viscerally present in You Know You Want This, the new short-story collection by Kristen Roupenian (who shot to fame last year with Cat Person, published in the New Yorker): I found some of the scenes so unpalatable that I had to keep putting it down.

In 1988 the 14th novel by a little-known 63-year-old British author was published in New York. The Shell Seekers, the 500-page story of a woman, Penelope Keeling, looking back on her life and loves during the second world war, took the US by storm. Read more

When asked, Marlon James is hard-pressed to name his favorite story. It's admittedly a nearly impossible request to make of anyone, and surely more so of a novelist, whose trade relies so deeply on both intake and telling, however tangled, of tales. Unable to name just one, James improvised. Read more

Christobel Kent is among the English language's finest crime writers-and finest writers, as far as I'm concerned. In poetic, nuanced prose, she constructs powerful stories about misogyny and violence. Read more

As self-published works grow in popularity, indie authors are increasingly in a position to market their book to foreign publishers or to agents and producers working in film, TV, and theater. But before authors can do that, they need know their rights. Read more

‘I never planned to be a writer. It is a very odd way to make a living. Just telling lies...

I do have a visceral sense of breaking through the shell of something when I walk into my study in the morning. Now I just go and do it. Sometimes it doesn't go well, but most often, I'll look up and it's time for lunch and I don't know what happened... Read more